Belford is a gritty climb - but straightforward and enjoyable.
The background: I'm a flatlander, from the Midwest, but also a marathoner in my late 20s. My hiking buddies were all in their mid 50s, anywhere from moderate to very good condition. We were planning to climb Huron (two of our party had never summited a 14er before), but we switched the night before to Belford, because the Belford trailhead was much easier to reach.
The hike: Because we'd come to Colorado during a particularly rainy week of a particularly rainy summer, we left Buena Vista at 4.30 AM. In the dark we nearly drove right past the Missouri Gulch trailhead on CO Rd 390. A word of caution: The trailhead marker is on the left hand side and flush with the road, so it can't be read unless you're actually turning left into the trailhead.
At 5.30 we reached the trailhead and headed up. At first, we kept a fairly slow pace for the sake of our less-than-in-great-shape hikers. The first half-mile heads pretty much straight up the mountain. Even after the switchbacks start, the trail is pockmarked with rocks. This is not a gentle slope. From the very beginning, Belford earns its Class 2 ranking.
At 10,800 we all nearly walked right past the lefthand turn to the east side of Missouri Gulch. This is ironic: The night before, I'd printed off a photo of the turn, since it looked so easy to miss. But I nearly missed it anyway. What should have alerted me was the change in the trail, which went from being an obvious dirt-and-rock trail to two or three gently trodden cedar chipped trails in the woods. A word to the wise: Keep your eyes peeled for this turn!
According to the route directions, there's a third of a mile between crossing the Missouri Gulch and reaching the abandoned cabin. It is a long third of a mile, all switchbacks through a rock field. Above the Missouri Gulch ridge we could see summer clouds developing, so halfway through the rock field we split up. The three slower members of our party plugged away for a while but never reached the summit, with two turning back around 12,000 feet and the third around 13,000 feet. This is not a complicated hike but it is not for beginners.
But we two faster hikers picked up the pace, and raced the summer storms from treeline to the summit. I have one word for this part of the trail: grind. Above treeline, the trail switchbacks unrelentingly up the north spine of Belford. With the exception of a rocky patch near 12,000 feet where I lost sight of the trail among some of the boulders, there's nothing treacherous - but the steady, steep climb upwards is tough enough.
As I went, the clouds turned from white to dark grey, and while I don't refuse to hike through rain or snow (I summitted Princeton in the middle of a late July snow squall), I do refuse to hike through lightning! So I pushed hard upwards, switchback after switchback after switchback. Never have I been so thankful for flat ground as I was when I reached the flattening out mentioned at 13,400 feet.
At 9.00 AM I reached the summit. With my hiking buddy behind me and all the other hikers en route to Oxford, I had the whole place to myself, gorgeously quiet. The clouds had cleared away somewhat, and the summit was brightly sunny, leaving me to enjoy the great views: Oxford and Harvard to the south and east, Missouri to the west, La Plata and the Mosquito range to the north. This is one of my favourite parts of hiking 14ers: There's no better place to enjoy mountain scenery than from 5000 feet above city life, invigorated by a three-hour hike, standing among the clouds.
At 9.15, my hiking buddy joined me on the summit, and by 9.30, the clouds were rolling in again, so we skipped Oxford and headed down.
The descent: The closer we got to the bottom, the more we relaxed about the weather enough to enjoy the scenery - the Missouri Gulch area is quite lovely, and very worth the grind. Probably the most remarkable sight were the 'mountain chickens', as a few fellow hikers called them. We couldn't figure out what they were talking about, till we saw the ptarmigens. About fifteen minutes from the trailhead, we stopped at a grave from Vicksburg, a vanished town from the 1800s; the grave belongs to an infant who died of pneumonia.
About 1.00 PM we reached the trailhead, met up with the rest of our hiking party, and headed home - sore, but happy.
In short: Is it a tough hike? Absolutely, especially if you take it fast like I did. But I was thankful to miss the bad weather, and thankful for the gorgeous views.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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